Family Traditions
by legendarytobes
Summary: Chloe has an unusual family but she can live with that, even if Thanksgivings drive her crazy.


"Mom, I don't want to wear a tie!" Jonathan said, squirming in his suit and pulling at the blue (what other color) tie around his neck.

She frowned down at her seven year old and straightened back the collar of his shirt and smoothed down his hair. It was dark now, as black as the man standing next to her, glaring at the door to the Luthor Pent House like it was laced with Kryptonite. Jonathan had been blond at first, a shade lighter than her natural color had been as a child, but he'd been growing a lot lately and a change in his hair was the last thing that was different about him.

"Clark? You know that it's five minutes past six. We promised Lex to be on time."

Her husband glared back at the door like he was considering torching it out of spite, and then he looked toward her. "Do we have to?"

She rolled her eyes. "These are the rules as laid out by Martha. We see Lex at Thanksgiving because he's also part of Conner-"

"If you say 'dad,' I swear. I did not sign off on my DNA getting stolen."

Chloe sighed and touched his forearm. "We didn't agree for spike champagne to lead to the world's weirdest, longest pregnancy either. Conner and Lex have been bonding a lot since her got his memories back, and you're not going to spite your mom. We all know this."

Jonathan, bless him, looked up at his father and his chin wobbledd a little. "Cousin Conner is awesome. Do you not like his dad?"

Clark gritted his teeth but finally knocked on the door. "Lex and I get along better than at other times. I just want to point out that mom had an emergency peace summit in New York for the U.N. She didn't have to do Thanksgiving with them."

"She did last Christmas making sure you didn't burn Lex to a cinder at the farm. She needs to rest up for a month from now," Chloe replied, rolling her eyes as adeptly as she ever had back in high school. Clark's pouts brought out her outter tenth grade bitch. Of course, considering he was prone to pouts and she to snark to snap him out of it, well, maybe immortals were just overall stunted. "Lex," she said, plastering on a smile as the other man held out the door. "You don't have people for that?"

Lex smiled and she felt back her own frustration with him. To be fair, he was something that Lionel had created in his own way, the patchwork of cloning experiments and bargains with Darkseid. Lex 2.0 had spent his life for the bulk of a decade barely remembering anything and then after a Luthorcorp accident last December having everything flood back. Technically, he wasn't literally the same man who'd hurt her or her mother and Chloe tried to work around that. He was Lex the way Conner had once been Alexander and, to be fair, in the last seven or eight years, he'd given the League far less trouble than the Joker or Brainac or dozens of others. Since he'd remembered his friendship, such as it had ended, with Clark, he'd actually started work in earnest with charities and philanthropies geared to undo damage LuthorCorp had done for years under Lionel and his earlier incarnation. It was creating such a tide of good will that he was a practical shoo-win to run for president the next election.

Chloe was sure Martha was going to help with those strings there, and she wasn't sure how nuclear Clark was going to go when he figured that out. For her own part, Chloe wasn't one hundred percent sure it was a good idea. Still, he'd never ratted out her husband or son's secret. She hoped it was because of good will towards all of them, and not just because they all shared Conner's secret as well and since they're reconnection, Lex had considered the young attorney his son in every sense of the word.

Moreover, Conner seemed to embrace that added father figure in his life maybe as readily as he had his "Grandma Martha."

"Chloe," he said, bending over and kisisng her cheek. "You look radiant."

She rolled her eyes and patted her stomach, expanding as it was already with her next child. Maybe they'd be lucky and this time would be a girl. She was a bit overwhelmed with temperamental superpowered men in her life. Of all of them, Jonathan at seven was often the most reasonable.

"I look fat."

"You glow," Lex said, smirking. "And," he said, turning to Jonathan. "How's my nephew?"

Jonathan blurred into his uncle's open arms. It was probably some irony that had been designed to irk her husband even more. "I'm great. The book you got me about Alexander the Great was amazing. I love all the Greek stuff."

Lex chuckled and patted Jonathan's shoulders. Chloe grinned a bit, herself. Clark had the decency and fear of Martha to never rise to such bait or to be outright rude to Lex, but she imagined that if Mr. Kent were still alive the sight of his namesake being so enthused to see a Luthor would have put him in the ground regardless.

"I actually was wondering if you might enjoy some Chinese history. Have you ever heard of Sun Tzu?"

Jonathan pulled back and wrinkled his nose up at him in a gesture that was purely her own. "I dunno? What about that big horse thing?"

Clark pulled Jonathan back toward him. Lex's eyes narrowed but he played off the slight well. "I don't think my son should be reading about war tactics."

The billionaire shrugged. "Like The Dark Knight never asked you to do it."

"It's not my style."

"Your lack of planning with your own cadre of villains in this city tells me as much. Clark, how many times do I have to bail you out of things before you realize that strategical exercises and thoughts can save you so much time and loss. Thinking works so much better than punching most of the time."

"Story of my life."

"Besides," Conner said blurring into reality next to all of them. He frowned at Chloe, wearing a look matching Clark's own pout at her non-reaction. "Really? Nothing Chlo?"

"You're far too late for my scare reflex," she said, hugging her brother-in-law or maybe nephew.

It was all very convoluted. Lex thought of Conner now that they'd connected as a son. Clark considered him something more fraternal. Chloe figured it was more because Conner was closer how he'd matured in age to Clark and that much responsibility that fast had freaked him out. However it was, she'd lived through years of Clark, Kara, and Bart, God bless him, all rushing in out of nowhere and scattering her papers. There was no way the next generation with Conner and her own son since he'd gotten his speed this year were going to startle her.

Ever.

"Anyway, those books are pretty good, Clark. I had to read some Machiavelli stuff in law school and Lex has been helping me pick other books like that from his collection."

"Jonathan is seven."

"Education starts early," Lex intoned. "Anyway, Chef's already got a spread of appetizers out and there's the game on in my living room." He shook his head at that. Chloe gathered Lex was as into sports as she'd ever been. His own health issues and just outsider nature struck her as nothing that, well, from his memories would have left him with times as one of the guys on the team. "So you three perhaps would like to do that."

Jonathan and Clark beamed at each other. Conner shrugged.

"Well, it is Metropolis versus Gotham. I have a bet riding on that with Dick. So, I'm hopeful they pull it off. Little brother, not-Dad? You in?"

Jonathan chuckled and hopped into Conner's arms. "Speed me. You're faster."

"You, kid, haven't seen anything yet."

With a slight flicker of motion, Chloe was left standing in the main hall with Lex. "So, you're not a pigskin person?"

"Not really. I was such a workaholic before and then sometimes Otis would make sure I had food and we'd talk a bit over things. I...all my family but Lucas Dunleavy is dead and there wasn't much point to the Holiday. I'm actually excited since, well, I know things ended terribly between us all before but Christmas had promise and, frankly, it's nice not to be alone all the time, Chloe."

She nodded and followed him toward the wet bar. Considerate of her condition, he poured her a Sprite and added extra marachino cherries to it. For himself, Lex poured a Scotch and she frowned. His counterpart had basically, from what Lana had told her, been a functional alcoholic the last few years of his life. She hoped the stress of all his old memories coming back and the sins of himself and his family wouldn't inflict that on him as well.

It was hard to separate the Lex that had shoved a chip in her and abducted her mother, among other awful things, with this version who hadn't, as far as the League had been able to tell, actually done anything criminal. If she'd given Conner the benefit of the doubt after Alexander and Tess after everything she'd cost them by stealing the Phantom Zone crystal, then she could do this.

Hell, Clark had forgiven her after their terrible year and she'd been spying on people and embezzling. She could...olive branches had benefitted her several times in her life. She had to respect that this time too. She couldn't really call herself a heroine if she didn't. Hell, of all the League, Fawkes would know this best. Chloe could give her life for strangers; she could do her best to extend forgiveness to someone who, well, part of him had saved her life more than once.

He'd been a great friend and comfort her safehouse summer too.

"So, how are you really?" he asked, eyeing her.

She sighed. "It's been weird. I mean, Clark and Jonathan were always so close, especially after Oliver left me for Dinah."

Lex sipped slowly and she shuddered. There was a conniving look in his eyes that was far too familiar. "Oliver acted like an asshole, surprise surprise. What did you ever see in him? I never thought you'd fall for a murderer?"

"Or an adultering creep or a bully. My judgement has been messed with a lot. I was coming off two years of Hell with Brainiac manipulating me-"

"Been there if memory serves."

"Exactly, and then Jimmy and Clark pounded my self esteem to nothing and Oliver was finally kind ot me and it was just nice."

"What was, Sullivan?"

"To be treated the way Lana and Lois have been. I mean, my cousin had another one of those change of career life calls and is off in the air force, dating this nice Hal Jordan guy, and it's been sort of a kick to publish at the DP under her name, keep that Lane streak alive."

"Well you're a woman who legally doesn't quite exist."

"True," she said sipping slowly. The baby tended to give her hiccups if she wasn't careful. "But the way you and Clark treated Lana and adored her and Ollie with Lois and, god, Clark for a while...it was nice for someone to offer me that."

"It wasn't real, was it?"

She shrugged and sat down on the sofa. Lex politely joined her and set a hand on her shoulder, letting her take her time. "I thought it was, and maybe if I'd stayed that reclusive doormat obsessed with Watchtower and just ready for him whenever he beckoned sure. But then I got my career back and my friendships and a better place in the League especially after my pregnancy brought my powers back."

"So your Emil thinks we'll all be here a year or a hundred or a thousand from now?"

Chloe sipped again and tried not too think too hard on it. "Clark and I, Jonathan and Conner for a long time, yeah. Your white blood cell count indicates it'll be a while too, even if you can't heal anything but yourself."

"Seems to have served me well as often as CEOs in this damn town get abducted. You ever think Superman and Fawkes attract more crime some days than they stop?"

"Some days, sure, I think we attract the crazies looking to make a name, same as Batman in Gotham, but are we supposed to sit things out?"

"Clark couldn't if he wanted to. He's a meddler by nature."

"Oh tell me about it. I just mean I like the worship and he liked my availability and then I had a life again and, okay, Clark was always around for birthdays and colds and swim class."

"In the cape?"

"Hardly, and we'd never cheat but things were just so good and I guess both Ollie and Lois got tired of it."

"Lois didn't get tired of it with Black Canary in a coat closet."

Chloe sighed and held up her glass. "To Oliver Queen, the man who made us who we are today."

Lex snickered and drained his drink. "Now that, I can relate to. At least, I'd like to think-whatever we are now-we came back better."

"Well, I have a good family and I know now that being worshipped looks better than it actually is," she replied, surprising herself by squeezing Lex's forearm. "I mean that, you know. This last year's been weirder than ever, even for us. I didn't...why would I even think that Jonathan was Clark's? I was trying to be nice to him, for what he'd lost. Hell, it's why his middle name is 'Bart.'"

"Maybe part of you knew all along, maybe a completely normal child wouldn't have jump started your powers."

"Which I didn't notice till a few months post-delivery. I'm serious. It's a good thing Oliver cut so early in a way cause this would have been a disaster."

"Ask my virtual sister. Apparently, Oliver is good at leaving them."

Chloe sighed and pulled her hand away. "I noticed you don't have any connections to Watchtower here. I know that Emil and Cyborg both offered a patch for you to be able to have her here tonight with us. Conner adores her."

"I can learn first to deal with navigating things with your and Clark before I can her. She stole my mind."

"You killed her so it might even out, really," Chloe said, tone brusque.

"Besides, she declined my offer," Lex countered. "She said Emil had arranged something but offered to start, I suppose, conversations in short bits."

Chloe laughed, long and loud. She had to some days. It was what happened when you were a self-resurrecting mutant married to an alien and both of your ran around with every metahuman, alien, and hero in the League. Some things and thoughts were too weird not to giggle at and hope you hadn't fallen into hallucinations and insanity.

"What?"

"You're the clone of the original Lex Luthor brought back when your father from another dimension brought your back via a deal with intergalactic Satan. I'm a mutant with a massive concentration of Kryptonite in my heart in my second pregnancy due to my relationship with Superman slash Clark my idiotic best friend since forever and all of this snowballed from magical champagne laced by an honest-to-god wizard. Our children, collectivelly, are another clone that even Lois winks at as a love child for you two, Jonathan the kid that Zatanna had a big hand in, and the new one on the way since we got way too celebratory after my Pulitzer. Just add in the senior senator from Kansas and a virtual Watchtower and we're such a mess!"

"It does make one rather existential sometimes. It works for us."

"I hope so. I'd like for one day things not to be so, I don't even know, with all the murder and intrigue and mind-raping between especially you and Clark and Tess. You're all sort of in this weird sibling lock down or something and it's going to take a whole lot of baby steps."

Lex smirked and walked over to the bar for another drink. "That's why I had my cable package upgraded."

"You didn't have everything?"

"I didn't care about football before. I still don't but if Conner and Clark like it and it makes them happy..."

"So you can thaw Clark with football and food?" Chloe grinned broadly. "That's actually a good plan."

"I'm an evil mastermind or so I've remembered."

"Lex," she said, sighing. "At Christmas...Hell, at press conferences, I know the way you look at Clark. That never went away even those years after the serum. I...Lois's joke about Conner isn't that much of a joke, is it?"

"Let me put it this way. I had the option of stealing DNA from a cup of Kara's or of Clark's over all the time we knew each other and I always wanted Conner to be part of Clark, maybe the only part of Clark I could have for my own who wouldn't hate me back."

"Clark doesn't hate you. You helped with the Crisis, you've done good work for the city, even helped the League once in a while with tactics even if it pisses Batman off."

"You asked me and I like when Batman's pissed off."

"We all do," she chirped. Bruce was brilliant and he'd trained her well abroad in hand to hand that long year she was waiting to swoop in and save them all from the VRA. Still he never saw things her way and she didn't appreciate the blatant distrust he had for her or her children and husband much either. Sure, she carried her own lead box in case but Bruce was posturing with it.

So if Lex consulting pissed him off, more's the better.

"Bruce was better than Oliver, but he was still insufferable."

She nodded. "You never say anything but you know everyone's identities, don't you?"

"The ones who interest me, of course. Clark was never hard to place. I was wiped, but I could still read records, put things together."

"Of course. I just...you loved him once."

"I love him still but I play it...Conner is a good 'son' for lack of a better word. I took that much from him or the Lex before me did, same difference."

"I don't think it is," Chloe replied, reaching up and yanking Lex's free hand until it was over her belly. "If I really thought you were exactly the same, then I wouldn't back Martha up on this family edict. You're your own man too, just as Conner is, just as Clark doesn't have to do everything Jor-El wanted. I believe that. You know, if she's a girl, I'm going to ask if we can make her middle name Lily."

"Ask?"

"Demand, okay, I am Chloe Sullivan. Still, if it's a boy and we have too many of those, sick of being outnumbered you know."

"You never would be, Sullivan. You own all of us."

"As it should be. I just mean that, I'd like to given him a middle name like Joseph."

"I'm sure Clark will be thrilled."

"And, odd as it is, we're what we've got. Conner and Jonathan and the little one. They're siblings so they should feel...just no fighting."

"Agreed, that I can understand more than you know."

"Lionel sucks in any universe if it makes you feel better. Clark at least understands that if Lionel had...well the whole universe implodes starting from there. So, feel free, you can join however it happened the Clark Kent Love Child Creators Club."

"We need a better acronym."

"We really do," she said, laying her head on his shoulder. "Thank you."

"I'm confused."

"I'd have been blown into a million pieces years ago without you or dead from a vampire bite. Things are shifting but maybe not in a bad way."

"You think we have a type?"

"Tall, dark, handsome and painfully outclassed without the brains of the operation behind him, definitely. Stubborn and prone to being a martyr? Double check."

"So, alright, taking that aside even if Conner came about because of-"

"Not magical champagne," she hedged.

"Old Lex took, then maybe Clark has a type too."

"How so?"

"Snarky, morally grey masterminds with the potential to go either way. I think we're a singular set."

"Then what the Hell did he ever see in Lois and Lana?"

"Lana is rather fetching."

"Be honest, it was more because she'd been his and it was the closest you'd ever get to him."

"Why, Sullivan, with accusations like that, I almost wonder if you want me too."

She snickered. "If there was a world where you and Tess and Clark were siblings and Tess and Clark were going all I, Claudius, then maybe there was a world where I did more that summer, acted on things from long ago."

Lex stood up and started toward the dining room door. "But it's better this way, like a family again, after so much loss."

Chloe eased herself up and took his proferred hand. "Sure, now let's see if we can get Tess and Martha out there with us to the farm for Christmas. Maybe then you'll watch football too."

Lex snorted. "Some things, Sullivan, are too impossible even for us."


End file.
